NEBRASKAland Magazine is dedicated to outstanding photography and informative writing with an engaging mix of articles and photos highlighting Nebraska’s outdoor activities, parklands, wildlife, history and people.
Issue link: http://mag.outdoornebraska.gov/i/547470
AUGUST-SEPTEMBER 2015 • NEBRASKAland 37 carcass buried before sunup. If some flies do lay eggs, phoretic mites, hitchhikers on the beetles, will eat the eggs, one of many mutually beneficial relationships that occur in the natural world. The underground brood chamber also protects the beetles from predators that may eat them, a list that includes bats, opossums, shrews and even the northern leopard frog. Once a carcass is buried, the beetles remove its hair or feathers and work the mass into a compact ball, secreting a saliva-like substance as they go that will slow decomposition. The female then lays 10 to 30 eggs in an underground chamber above the carcass. When the eggs hatch in a few days, the parents feed the young, regurgitating partially digested food. Soon, the larvae are able to feed on the carcass on their own, yet the parents continue to care for them, warding off any predators that may find their way into the brood chamber. This care is a rarity in the insect world. If the carcass the parents chose isn't large enough to support the brood, the adults will cannibalize smaller larvae to ensure survival of the rest. After about two weeks, when nothing but bones remains, the parents leave and the young pupate remain in the soil next to the carcass. They emerge as adults about a month later. The parents continue to feed on carrion, but soon, with their short life cycle of slightly more than a year complete, they die. The young adults will feed into September or October, when they burrow into the ground. They remain there until the following spring. Unlike some insects that migrate and others that freeze solid and resume their life at the spring thaw, overwintering burying beetles remain at or below the frost line, moving up and down in the soil profile to stay cold but avoid freezing. Rediscovery in Nebraska The American burying beetle was once found in 35 states and three Canadian provinces in eastern North America. Its decline was first noted in the 1880s and nearly complete by the 1920s. Today its numbers and range have been cut by 90 percent. It is found only in Rhode Island, Arkansas, Oklahoma, Kansas, South Dakota and Nebraska, the latter four of which straddle the edge of its historic range. A limiting factor in the western portion of the beetle's historic range was annual rainfall. Soils must stay moist after they burrow into the ground in the fall and emerge in the spring. If it dries out, the beetles will die. Soil type can also inhibit the beetle's range. Those with higher clay content are simply too hard for the insect to dig through. The species has been found to prefer loam or sandy soils. Within its historic range, habitat conversion – primarily through agriculture and the tillage, irrigation, and insecticide and pesticide use that comes with it – is the prime cause of the American burying beetle's decline. Additionally, most appropriately sized